Final chapters of my 'spiritual' path

I've been studying religion and trying to find my way sort of speak in religion and life.

My fixed beliefs are this:

1. non-violence (almost like janis but can eat meat)2. desire leads to suffering, (non-selfiness like buddhism)3. there IS a god4. There IS an afterlife (whereabouts are unknown)5. God is nature/science and/or God is not a human, symbol or object (same with sikhs and muslims almost), god has no name, not even god itself. 6. Magic is real, but no rituals, or objects will get you to the 'divine'. Magic is nature, just haven't found by science yet. 7. There is evolution

I get my ideas from Buddhism (agnostic-atheist zen buddhism) and Taoism philosophy not religion)

What do Atheist think about these, i often hear them 'debate' about bible and christianity which THEY ARE ANNOYING no pun intended, but if All Christians and Muslims which is 4 billion people convert to buddhism or taoism accept evolution,, god IS nature/science, Would atheism have existed? Both accept everything from nature.

What do atheist have to say against Taoism and Buddhism, I rarely hear of them being mention.

Replies to This Discussion

I'm not really an atheist, nor am I a believer. So I consider myself agnostic at the for lack of a better fit (yeah, I know the description doesn't fit agnosticism either, but work with me here).

I'm also quite new to the site.

Anyway, to your points:

Fixed beliefs:

1. Seems good, I agree. How do you stand against violence in games and fiction (books, movies, etc…)?

2. Do you mean the inability to let go? Because desire in itself leads to motivation and is, in my opinion, a good thing.

3. Any particular reason for this belief? I ask this because I'm starting to get to the conclusion that there is no god.

4. Same as 3, what makes you belief that there is an afterlife?

5. What exactly makes this god 'god' then? Or do you just mean the wonder about the vastness and beauty of nature, the world and the universe.

6. What would you consider magic then? and would you change the name once science discovers the working?

7. Pretty much an undeniable fact :) How do you stand on the Theory of Evolution?

Variable beliefs:

1. you are theist or deist if you belief there is a god. But I assume you're pretty much a pantheist? I'm not so much for organized religion either.

2. I don't know, when you think about it, it is a pretty much vague stand to make. I'm only using it because I feel I'm in a vague point at this myself.

3. Reincarnation? Why? And how? And Patheist (I assume you mean Pantheist), I considered it, but I actually don't feel connected to the rest of the universe that much, I don't feel like I'm one with it.

4. I agree, or else I probably wouldn't have come here :)

I don't think Atheists have much to say against anything, they just don't belief in supernatural deities. Quite a lot of people (many of them Atheists) might have to say something against certain parts of Taoism and Buddism, just like against any other religion or way of life.

I think that because Buddhism doesn't push itself much at other it is left mainly alone, the reverse is the reason why Christianity and Islam are picked at the most.

There is life after I die - other people with much of my genome still live including my children. Why do my parents and grandparents need to exist in the 'dentist waiting room of eternity' IF their genome continues in me and my siblings and on and on into the future.

I don't know what a fixed belief could mean - you cannot change this idea in your head though you may try?

The impermanent self does not exist from one hour to the next - how does a non-material ghost hold it together 'forever' if my material brain has no fixed identity from moment to moment? Did this all start 13.72 billion years ago or not? What is eternity exactly?

You are not 'way off' lol, God is a force it is life itself, and 'god' doens't need to be worshiped. Why do I call it god, why not? what difference does it make what I call it? The point is.. tomato tomata however you spell it. Cellphone is an Iphone, so rather I say 'i have an iphone' or 'i have a cellphone' its the same thing. So if I say 'i believe in god' and 'i believe in nature' or 'i believe in an ant' how can those be diffrent, is it because how 'other people' ignornat define it?

Sorry for the ramble.

I believe only from my perspective and reason. There is no changing those I do believe that sciense has to discover so much stuff, and that there is an afterlife yet for it to be discovered.

An Iphone is a cellphone, not every cellphone is an Iphone. So it's quite different how you say it.

If you say "I have a cellphone." no one is automatically going to assume you have an Iphone.

So if I say 'i believe in god' and 'i believe in nature' or 'i believe in an ant' how can those be diffrent, is it because how 'other people' ignornat define it?

It's not about how others define it, it's how you define it. If you don't give a definition, it's pretty useless to set out your claims. In fact, most of what you did up to here is give your opinions (which is good, but not really helpful in a discussion).

Would you like to go into this a bit deeper and answer (some of) the questions that were posted here after your statement? Or do you prefer to keep it at this. Both are fine with me, but if this does not lead to a back and forth discussion with some reason and arguments, it becomes pretty useless to me.

Buddhists believe in neither God nor the afterlife. Their version of reincarnation is markedly different from the Hindu version, which requires a soul. Buddhists actually believe that the need to label the forces in the universe, both natural and otherwise, by calling it "God" is meaningless.

Fixed belief number 5 renders fixed belief number 3 a non-element. If God is the natural forces of the universe as testable by science, then why not just cut out the middle man and call it what it is?

There is no proof for fixed belief number 6. Magic and prayers have never been empirically proven to be real. If it's not matter, anti-matter, quantum states, or one of the four forces of the universe, it falls within the realm of the supernatural, and hence is likely not to exist.

Fixed belief number 2. Buddhists realize that to desire is to be human. There are a lot of practicing Buddhists that have material possessions. The proper belief of Buddhism is that to live is to endure suffering, which does have some modicum of truth.

The number one rule of Buddhism is that absolutes don't exist. Hence, there is no such thing as a fixed belief. This actually also has some modicum of truth. I'm not sure if I completely buy there "no self" and "thought moments" ideas, but beliefs and even tastes in various things are mostly firmly rooted in the physical aspects of the brain. Personality is mostly physical. The brain rearranges itself all the time. Hence, ideas slowly get retooled or outright changed.

I don't have anything against Buddhism. I consider it to be either a nontheistic religion or just a basic philosophy. I only have something against its more mystical elements. But I consider it to be a very inspiring ideology.